Good Morning!

I've been reading Dietrich Bonhoeffer's marvelous Life Together with a small group of people this summer.  In his chapter on "The Day with Others" Bonhoeffer wonders what we should be like every morning when we wake up and face another new day in the light of the resurrection.  He writes:

 

If we were to learn again something of the praise and adoration that is due the triune God at break of day, God the Father and Creator, who has preserved our life through the dark night and wakened us to a new day, God the Son and Savior, who conquered death and hell for us and dwells in our midst as Victor, God the Holy Spirit, who pours the bright gleam of God's Word into our hearts at the dawn of day, driving away all darkness and sin and teaching us to pray aright--then we would also begin to sense something of the joy that comes when night is past and brethren who dwell together in unity come together early in the morning for common praise of their God, common hearing of the Word, and common prayer.

 

Do you feel like that in the morning?  My wife says that she's thankful that I'm generally in a good mood in the morning--and most of the time without coffee.  For this I am thankful.  But I'm not sure I share Bonhoeffer's resounding praise of the glory of the dawn.  But I'm willing to have my attitude changed.

 

I've always been impressed with friends in the African-American church who share their prayer requests together and often (and sometimes repeatedly) thank God for "waking me up this morning."  You just never hear that in the 'white' church.  We take waking up this morning for granted, as much as we do cereal left in the box, a little fresh cold milk and a cup of coffee.  It's sort of our birthright I suppose.  I might be in a good mood, but I don't really ever feel thankful to have awakened this or any morning in particular. 

 

Bonhoeffer was living in a different context of course.  He was leading an underground seminary during the pre WW II Nazi Germany.  He was suspected by the German authorities for being a traitor.  So, I suppose he would be thankful for waking up after another long dark night of avoiding the SS.  But I don't think this is all that Bonhoeffer has in mind.  He is convinced that a Chrisitian should not only be thankful but feel praise and adoration in the morning because of all that it represents.  The arrival of morning is not just evidence that you have survived a night, but is the promise of another day, it's an echo of resurrection morning.  "It is the time of fulfillment, the resurrection of the Lord.  At night Christ was born, a light in the darkness; noonday turned to night when Christ suffered and died on the Cross.  But in the dawn of Easter morning Christ rose in victory from the grave. (Life, 40)" 

 

Good morning to you . . .whatever time of day it is in your life.